Author's Notes: Revised 3.14.11. Read and review! I'm totally open to any comments on how the story is going, how my OCs rate, and whether I manage to keep the Titans in-character!

—Chapter Seven: Training Begins… Well, almost—

Things should have been easy. The first step was finding the level they were at. Robin had a decent idea from the reports, but they had all been written from a researcher's point of view, not a fighter's. So Robin decided he would like each one of them to demonstrate their abilities where he could observe, Cyborg could scan, and Raven could analyze. Beastboy and Starfire could keep an eye on the three not being tested.

They decided to examine Ray first, as his abilities were the closest to a normal superhero's. The teenager agreed easily enough once Robin explained that understanding their individual abilities would help him figure out why they had been sent here and what they had to do before they could go home.

Once they got past the initial problem of having to explain everything in Cyborg's lab to Ray, if only to get him to relax enough to actually be able to focus, the three had a short debate over which abilities to test first. They finally agreed to test his heat control/generation first, as that was the least complicated and easiest measured. Then they would test his light and electricity powers. Third would be testing Robin's theory that his catalyst ability with his own teammates might be useful for focusing other types of energy or superpowers. Lastly, Robin would end the testing with simple hand-to-hand combat, providing Ray wasn't totally wiped.

It really should have been quite straightforward. According to Robin's schedule, they should easily finish inside of two hours.

First was the heat control/generation. Robin showed a metal machine with a knob on the end to Ray and told him that it would measure the type and degree of heat he produced. Cyborg further explained that with this device they could not only measure how strong Ray's ability was, but where it came from. Raven was there to measure the ebb and flow of the energy in the room surrounding Ray, in case his powers ended up being supernatural, in which case Cyborg's device might end up useless.

Ray calmly set his hands on the knob of the device and closed his eyes. He had done similar tricks hundreds of times in the past, usually for mediocre things like heating water or pans for cooking.

To his shock, and everyone else's, the device melted to a molten mess in seconds.

"That was unexpected," said Robin, the first to recover. Perhaps Ray's ability was more heat-related than they'd thought?

"It's cold," observed Raven.

Cyborg checked his stats and agreed. "Room temperature dropped 20 degrees Fahrenheit," he confirmed. "Looks like Ray sucked the heat out of the room and dumped it in the device, but 20 degrees doesn't balance to the 2600 degrees needed to melt steel."

"Perhaps the catalyst ability?" thought Robin out loud. Raven and Cyborg looked thoughtful.

"That… never happened before," Ray said slowly, frowning at the silver glob, quickly congealing now that he'd stopped using his ability. His eyes swirled with blue and purple, which Raven easily understood even without her abilities as some sort of mix of sadness and confusion. "Only Ash, the Fire Elemental, can do something like melt metal. I've never heated anything more than just hot enough to cook an egg."

"Wait, you've never done that before?" asked Robin, suddenly frowning. He'd figured that Ray had simply underestimated the strength of the device, as other superheroes with similar powers had done in the past.

"Electricity," said Raven, gesturing at the rows and rows of various technology in the room.

Cyborg nodded. "Not just that, the construction of our Tower as well. It holds far more heat than Ray would be used to accessing."

Robin looked over to Ray. "You need access to the element to control it, right? Or do you seem to pull it seemingly from nowhere?"

"I can use my powers pretty much anywhere, but then it is rare to be anywhere with a complete absence of light. The rest of my Elementals need direct access to their element. For that reason, our castle is made of stone, with large windows and slits to allow airflow, a clear crystal roof in our entry and Great Hall, a giant central fireplace, and filled with plants and ponds."

Raven, Cyborg, and Robin stared at him for a second, all having to adjust their mental pictures of the 'castle' Ray lived in to accommodate these strange features. Once they'd done that, they analyzed what he'd said about his abilities.

"Let's try light next, or would you rather try electricity?" Robin asked Ray, eager to test his hypotheses. He'd earlier explained that electricity was basically the same thing as lightning bolts, only it was controlled and harnessed in order to use to power their technology.

"Wait, if we…" began Raven, about to remind them that Ray had earlier melted a steel measuring device by pulling too much heat from the room.

"I've always enjoyed showing off my lightning," said Ray, and before any of the three Titans could tell him it was a bad idea, he had his hands about a foot from each other with a small lightning bolt zipping back and forth.

The light elemental suddenly frowned as his lightning grew with each bounce off his hands. It kept growing and growing. "Something's wrong!" he shouted.

The lights in the room flickered and one by one anything powered by batteries or connected to their electrical grid exploded. Raven quickly covered herself, Robin, and Cyborg in a black energy shield. Even through that, they could make out the incredibly bright flash of lightning shooting across the room. Surprisingly, there was no boom.

The light faded but didn't go away. Raven lowered her shield and they met the strange sight of Ray desperately controlling a huge ring of white-hot lightning spinning around his form. His palms were spread outwards towards the spinning circle, and his eyes were wide and glowing a bright gold that was painful to look at.

"Dissipate it!" shouted Robin, feeling the buildup of static in the room crackling along his skin.

"I… can't," Ray managed to get out, sweat pouring down his face from the effort of keeping a hold on the electricity. "It… won't. Need… somewhere to send…"

"Ground it!" instructed Cyborg. "We need a lightning rod! We're below ground level, so all we need is to get through the concrete!"

Raven looked around and spotted a 20 foot long iron spike lying against the back of the huge lab they were in. A piece of something that Cyborg had never finished. Using her power, she lifted the huge spike and stabbed it into the ground.

Ray immediately swung his arms around, the lightning following the motion of his hands, and then flung an arm out towards the rod. The lightning bolt shot off and struck with a loud crack followed by a buzzing, ultimately leaving only charred concrete and melted iron behind.

The light elemental dropped to his knees, only just catching himself. He was drenched in sweat. His eyes faded back to hazel. After a few deep breathes, he looked towards the Titans, confusion plain on his face.

"I've never had problems with lightning. What on earth happened? There was just… so much. Too much. And it…" Ray groaned and grabbed his head. "And it was weird… It acted strange."

"I may have something," began Cyborg, analyzing the data on his personal computing system built into his arm. (Everything else in the laboratory had been destroyed.) "Lightening itself is a great electrical discharge, capable of reaching nearly 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit and speeds of 144,000 miles per hour. Considering that the temperature of the sun at its surface is approximately 9,941 degrees Fahrenheit, the speed of light being 186,202 miles per second, and the fact that the vast majority of light sources are thermal…" he mumbled quickly to himself. "So his ability as a catalyst is a function of the…"

"Ray takes in the energies around him, increases their power and speed, then releases them in a form he can control," said Raven simply, ignoring the glare from Cyborg at the unscientific statement she'd just made. Nonetheless, it was quite true. "He probably just had a hard time recognizing the energy since it was… polluted, you could say, by our technology."

The poor light knight was so obviously lost, and his weak body and pounding headache weren't helping.

There was a knock on the miraculously still standing door and Lore poked his head in. He looked around the room in curiosity, apparently not seeing anything weird about the burn marks and pieces of metal debris everywhere.

"Ah! It was Ray," said the healer, his purple eyes falling on the elemental. Lore turned his head towards Robin. "May I come in?"

Robin nodded.

"Thank you." Lore entered and approached Ray, kneeling in front of him, not caring in the least of the ash and grease getting on his expensive robe.

"May I help you?" he asked Ray, politely. Behind Lore, Beastboy nodded proudly to himself, happy that Lore had learned to ask first.

Robin frowned, realizing that asking and waiting for permission before healing someone could result in a delay that could compromise someone's life. Maybe he should've been a little easier on the guy earlier.

Ray gave him a strange look. "Uh, yeah?"

Lore nodded and took Ray's hands in his, raising them to his bowed forehead, much like a slave of ancient days would greet a beloved master.

Raven watched with interest, quite curious about how this healing actually occurred. Was it more manipulation of energies, or perhaps selective fast-forwarding or rewinding of individual time? Could he be one who transfers his own health to the one he was aiding, or maybe…

To her shock, she sensed nothing. Nothing but the ease of pain in Ray's head and the lightening of his body as the stress and weakness lifted.

And Beastboy's consciousness going fuzzy. She turned around in surprise, and saw Beastboy leaning against the doorway he'd been standing next to, purring. While still in human form. His eyes were hazy and staring off into nothingness.

"Thank you," said Ray, taking his hands from Lore's and smiling.

The white-haired teenager looked up at him, surprised and excited about getting thanked. It didn't really happen back home. "You're welcome!"

"Beastboy?" asked Raven, drawing everyone's attention to the shapeshifter, who, in all honesty, looked half a step away from a kitten high on catnip.

Beastboy jolted to attention, noticed everyone staring at him, then glared at Lore.

"Dude, you did it again!"

"I am very sorry," apologized Lore, looking as crestfallen as Starfire when she created a Tamaranian dish that made everyone sick.

Beastboy instantly felt guilty. "Nah, it's okay. I mean, it doesn't hurt or anything…"

"It is not okay," said Raven. "Taking control of another is never okay."

Lore was staring at the ground, and under her words he seemed to shrink.

Beastboy glared at Raven and growled. How dare she hurt Lore! Then he froze, catching himself again, and glanced back at Lore, completely confused at this instinctive drive to protect the strange teenager he'd just met a few hours ago.

"What are you doing to Beastboy?" demanded Raven, it coming out harsher than she meant it to, mainly because of her confusion over what and how the boy was doing ANYTHING. The white-haired boy's ability drew a complete blank on her radar. She could sense his mind and emotions, sure, but he felt like a completely normal human.

Right now, it was Beastboy that felt like the strange one, his powers spiking. Raven swore she even felt Beastboy's inner Beast nearly rise out a couple times.

Lore twisted his hands in his robe. "I… I never affected a person before. I apologize."

"Calm yourself!" Raven ordered, growing alarmed by the spike in Lore's emotions, a combination of fear of herself and pain from the accusations. Not that she was afraid or guilty about hurting Lore, but that there was an echoing spike in anger and protective instinct from Beastboy across the room.

Beastboy caught himself again and clenched his hands, now claws, into his fists.

"Raven, you need to stop," ordered Robin, sensing something dangerous was going on between the three, and that Raven was making things worse.

Cyborg laid a gentle hand on Lore's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We'll figure it out," he said comfortingly. The boy was actually trembling beneath his hand.

"Just give me a second," whispered Lore, his voice tight, squeezing his eyes shut.

He took a deep breath, and Raven frowned as, instead of controlling his emotions or even blocking them out, he seemed to completely eliminate them and replace them with something else entirely. In all honesty, to her mind it was as if someone highly intelligent had just turned off their own brain and let an idiot take over.

When Lore again looked back up, he again had that familiar easygoing smile on his face. Which Raven now suspected was completely artificial.

"Sorry about that," he said in a cheerful voice. "Weird stuff happens around me all the time, even when I'm not healing anyone."

Raven reached her sense over to Beastboy, but her green friend was perfectly normal now.

Robin glanced at Cyborg, who looked up from where he had been studying his readings of Lore, Beastboy, and the room. He shrugged. He also hadn't come up with anything to explain Lore's ability or connection to Beastboy.

Raven suddenly got it, and her eyes darted over to Robin and Cyborg. There was only one thing she'd never studied in depth, mainly because it had always, she'd thought, showed itself through the use of other supernatural abilities she could read just fine. Also, in one like Lore, it should have been physically visible, glaringly obvious, and reeking of magic.

Lore smiled innocently at her when he noticed her stare. All of her powers and senses told her he was a perfectly normal human, if a bit of a dipstick. Her intellect and logic told her otherwise.

It was the only plausible answer.

"Aura," she said simply. "His aura must be distinctly different from a normal person's. I'll have to do research on the subject."

I have a bad feeling that this one might need even more help then Reville, thought Raven to herself, as she swept out of the room. What he just did to his own emotions was simply… wrong. I know how hard it is to block out your emotions, your true self. I can't imagine wiping the slate clean and rewriting my own personality. There has to be a better way for him to control his aura. He needs to learn to control or block his emotions, not shoot them dead and replace them with androids.

Author's Note: Yeah, I bet you all noticed another part I 'skipped'. Actually, Robin left out the explanation to the OC team on purpose. I'll explain in a later chapter. I was meaning to go through my OCs one by one for Robin's training, but then Lore had to slip in there and mess all my plans up and throw Raven for a loop… Oh, and the lab is just a random sub-level room in the Tower. Anyway, next chapter, the testing continues and some training begins, probably with fairly destructive and/or unpredictable results.